


Merry Christmas, Baby

by ChElFi



Series: Daffodils [10]
Category: Captain America (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: And then there's the fluff, Christmas Fluff, Domestic Fluff, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Fluffy Ending, I think that covers it, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, did i mention the fluff?, lots and lots of fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-27
Updated: 2015-12-27
Packaged: 2018-05-09 15:24:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,083
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5545088
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChElFi/pseuds/ChElFi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve and Maria. I love them. End of story. (I can't hear your lousy canon over the sound of how awesome my OTP is.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Merry Christmas, Baby

**Author's Note:**

> Oh, my. So I was shopping. It's Christmas, that's what you do, right? And the store played Merry Christmas, Baby. That's all she wrote.
> 
> For all my Daffodils fans, especially those who squee whenever I post a new story in the series. Merry Christmas. Sorry it's late, I had internet difficulties. Still do, but I'm mooching off Starbucks wifi.
> 
> (Castle is Maria’s fave show, for those of you who don't catalogue my characters. ;))

The clock in the living room had just struck midnight when Steve heard the key in the door. He hadn’t been waiting for it. Maria was in Malaysia and didn’t expect to be home for several more days. He wondered what had changed, but he didn’t stir from his position in the bed.

She left the apartment dark as she walked down the hall, so Steve pretended to remain asleep so she could “surprise” him. It wasn’t easy, though. His body hummed in anticipation of her touch. It had been three weeks since they’d been able to do more than see each other in passing at work.

He heard her slip off her shoes by the bedroom door and cross the threshold. Steve forced his breaths to come out in even puffs as battle often required of him. Even so, his breath nearly hitched when the bed gave way behind him to the pressure of her body as she crawled under the covers.

Steve envisioned her reaching for him and he was glad she hadn’t turned on any lights because she’d be sure to see the goose pimples rising along his skin at the thought of her hands on him.

“Yikes!” Steve startled as Maria’s ice cold hand touched his shoulder. “Your hands are freezing.”

Maria was laughing when she turned on the bedside lamp.

“And you’re fake sleeping,” she said as she gasped between chuckles.

“So, you think that’s funny, do you?” he growled.

Then he quickly pinned her beneath him, slipped his hand under her shirt, and pressed his fingers hard against the flesh to tickle her. She laughed harder until she finally got his wrists in her hands and flipped him onto his back.

Steve was laughing now, too, and he reached to pull her lips to his.

“How’d you get home so quickly?” he asked as she settled herself against him and buried her face in his neck.

“Well, I was at a safe house in Kuala Lumpur,” she explained, her voice in his ear making him shudder. “Around midnight I heard this noise on the roof and went out to investigate.”

Steve felt himself tense. It wasn’t that he thought she couldn’t handle anything thrown at her, but his instinct to protect was stronger toward her.

“There was a man on the roof,” she continued, skimming her hand down his arm in an effort to relax him.

“And eight tiny reindeer,” she chuckled, barely able to get out the words of her joke.

“Oh, you are in rare form tonight,” Steve laughed.

Maria sat up on his thighs and smiled down at him. She reached for the hem of her shirt but Steve took her hands in his instead.

“You look exhausted,” he said.

She only shrugged.

Steve rolled his eyes at her.

“Look, it’s one thing to work when you’re exhausted,” he said. “And call me selfish if you want, but I like to have you close to 100% when we make love so you can actually enjoy it.”

Maria gave him a look that told him she still found him unbelievable, even after nearly a year of marriage.

He sat up and kissed her gently.

“Come see the tree,” he said.

She followed him back down the short hall, her now warm hand gently in his. Steve flipped the switch next to the kitchen and the tree lights came on.

He watched her as she watched the lights dance around the tree.

“It’s beautiful,” she said, then she leaned into him.

He wrapped both arms around her and guided her awkwardly to the sofa. When they sat he took the blanket from the back and wrapped it around both of them. He rubbed his hand up and down her back and listened as her breathing slowed. He rememorized the way she felt in his arms. Each time it was so much more than the last time, as if they were still drawing closer to each other, as if she was willing to give him more of herself each day.

The lights reflected off the wall and the glass on the picture frame behind it. Steve didn’t need his enhanced vision to see every detail, it was permanently etched into his memory. He knew the number of trees and if he thought hard enough, he might be able to come up with the number of branches. A simple painting of a forest clearing in the panhandle of Idaho. If anyone else was ever to see it, they would think nothing of it. Behind it, and Maria didn’t know this, who said Steve couldn’t keep secrets, was a copy of their wedding license.

May seemed as if it had been long ago. There was something about his relationship with Maria that made Steve feel as if he had known her forever, and, at the same time, would never know her enough. He’d mentioned that to her once and she’d coopted a line from her favorite show.

_“Oh, so many layers the Maria Hill onion, however will you peel them all?”*_

Which reminded him…

“Do you want to open presents?” he asked.

“Why? Did you get me something besides Castle Season 5?”

He felt her smile against his chest.

“Yes,” he said and kissed the top of her head.

He felt her take a deep, slow breath.

“I’m pretty sure I don’t want to move,” she told him.

“You shouldn’t have pushed yourself to get home tonight,” he admonished gently.

“And miss our first Christmas together?” Her vocal cords sounded as if they were succumbing to her body’s exhaustion.

“As long as you’re safe, that’s all that mattered to me, you know that,” he said.

Maria pressed herself tightly against him.

“You know I can’t promise,” she started.

“I know,” he interrupted.

Now was not the time to have that conversation again.

She relaxed and Steve reached up to pull his fingers through her hair until she shared a contented sigh.

“Well, I am glad Santa was able to fit you into his sleigh,” Steve said.

Her body vibrated with a soft chuckle.

“Yeah, me too,” she said.

“Must be an interesting story,” he said.

“I’ll tell you some day,” she said, her words more of a mumble now.

Steve cupped her face to turn it up to his and kissed her softly.

“Sleep,” he told her.

She smiled and returned her head to rest on his chest.

“Merry Christmas, Captain Rogers,” she said quietly.

“Merry Christmas, Mrs. Rogers.”

**Author's Note:**

> *Line lifted from Castle.


End file.
